“With Lolo, I learned how to eat small green chili peppers raw with dinner (plenty of rice), and, away from the dinner table, I was introduced to dog meat (tough), snake meat (tougher), and roasted grasshopper (crunchy). Like many Indonesians, Lolo followed a brand of Islam that could make room for the remnants of more ancient animist and Hindu faiths. He explained that a man took on the powers of whatever he ate: One day soon, he promised, he would bring home a piece of tiger meat for us to share.”

Notice how the individual will of the child is missing. The father figure teaches; the child learns how to eat. He receives instruction. He has feelings in that he reports the texture (but not the taste) of the various foods, but we hear absolutely nothing about whether he resisted these impositions or felt any sort of disgust. What happened happened. He was in Indonesia, things were like this there, Lolo had his ideas, and Obama existed in that milieu, which was tough/crunchy and infused with spiritual beliefs.

If, indeed, he was.Posts elsewhere have reminded us that Indonesia is a Moslem country, and that, while it is a very large country - 4th in the world after the U.S. - and there are islands where some natives may eat dog meat, it is quite unusual and not easy to find in Djakarta.So this may be another story about Barack Obama that turns out o be not quite so.

This is an Althouse stretch linking a child having to eat what they told to eat-- and who amongst us has not experienced that, to general guidelines for a healthier diet. Given the huge industry that feeds and staves our struggle with obesity, Michelle Obama is just one of a thousand voices urging us to eat healthy, but of course i Althouse has to feed us the morning anti-Obama cereal to stoke our ideologies.

"It really isn’t unfair at all to bring Obama’s canine consumption to public attention. The president isn’t really one of us. He’s a dog-eater. He tells the story in his memoir to emphasize that viscerally, Obama identifies with the Third World of his upbringing more than with the America of his adulthood. It is our great misfortune to have a president who dislikes our country at this juncture in our history."

I don't get your point Meade unless you mean to imply that it is Obama's fault that the previous occupants of the the White House didn't use good Milwaukee made Milorganite and instead chose a cheap mercury contaminated local brand which has affected the garden she planted in good faith. Are you suggesting that I should not feed my grand daughter the vegetables grown in my back yard because M Obama's garden has some pollution problems? Or do you just like throwing any old Milorganite at the Obamas to see if some sticks?

She has more or less written school lunch menues for thousands of communities across the nation. The law she championed required (forces) school disticts to hike their school lunch prices by at least 5 cents per year while implementing all the grains and healthy foods the kids won't eat.

"It really isn’t unfair at all to bring Obama’s canine consumption to public attention. The president isn’t really one of us. He’s a dog-eater. He tells the story in his memoir to emphasize that viscerally, Obama identifies with the Third World of his upbringing more than with the America of his adulthood. It is our great misfortune to have a president who dislikes our country at this juncture in our history."

I have been saying something like this for the last two days. Maybe that is it - that he is a "dog eater". Not just literally, but also figuratively too. It is just one of those civil norms, that we never really talk about, because we don't. It is shared by almost all Americans - probably more American even that apple pie. Yet, we have a President who doesn't share that norm. Along with a lot of others that we take for granted.

My theory, right now, is that we are just now discovering how alien Obama really is. As I have said before, he isn't American, despite having American citizenship and being our President. And, the mere idea of our President not being American, having American norms, sharing our heritage and mores, is just too outrageous to have been seriously considered by many, at least 3 1/2 years ago when he was elected President. I remember thinking him a bit odd, but voted against him more because of his party and what they stood for. But, not really alien, which is really what he is.

roesch-v, lead poisoning in children is no joke. I'll be dead serious: If you are knowingly feeding your grandchildren vegetables grown in soil that you have amended with Milorganite or any other fertilizer containing sewage sludge, in my opinion, you should be investigated for child endangerment.

I urge you, especially if you are growing edible plants in urban soils, to have your soil tested for heavy metals before you plant.:

"Notice how the individual will of the child is missing. The father figure teaches; the child learns how to eat. He receives instruction. He has feelings in that he reports the texture (but not the taste) of the various foods, but we hear absolutely nothing about whether he resisted these impositions or felt any sort of disgust. What happened happened. He was in Indonesia, things were like this there, Lolo had his ideas, and Obama existed in that milieu, which was tough/crunchy and infused with spiritual beliefs."

This is all bullshit, the fact that Obama as a grown man relates eating dog in his book without the slightest regard for eating dog, indeed, he celebrates it, is the key factor in this story.

I urge you, especially if you are growing edible plants in urban soils, to have your soil tested for heavy metals before you plant

This is such good advice. People rarely think to do it and it does take some foresight and planning (which I lack, myself, in such areas) in order to get the garden in timely, but it really makes a lot of sense.

I think your point here is very interesting. Whoever wrote this does portray a boy who did not question anything he was "fed". I think you have to break the will of someone in order to make them a good communist or follower of whatever tyrannical ideology you want to inculcate. I'm afraid that after his "father" Frank Marshall Davis, the pedophile, got through with BO, eating whatever Lolo fed him was easy by comparison.

"My theory, right now, is that we are just now discovering how alien Obama really is. As I have said before, he isn't American, despite having American citizenship and being our President."

If he wan Hawaii, and that is FAR from proven, then he is a US Citizen. However, no matter if he was born on the Oval Office desk, he is not a natural born Citizen (the requirement), since his father was a British subject, and never American citizen. Obama 2 was born a British subject, and as such is not a natural born Citizen. Alexander Hamilton confirms that Obama Sr. was an improper "ascendant" (improper ancestor), and therefore Obama 2 is certainly not a "creature of our own" (sic) in Federalist #68.

As I'm sure you've been told many times, you're one hell of a writer. I really love this sentence: "He was in Indonesia, things were like this there, Lolo had his ideas, and Obama existed in that milieu, which was tough/crunchy and infused with spiritual beliefs."

"Creature of our own" (sic) in Federalist #68 is a natural born Citizen. Could a creature of our own possibly be the son of a Communist Kenyan British subject (improper ascendant), whom never intended to become an American citizen?

Well Meade for your information, I compost my garden; the makers of Milorganite point out that their product should not be used for gardening or growing edible plants. Still I do not see your/Althouse's point about the general good advice that Michelle Obama and many others have to make about improving our diets. It seems you like to go off on tangents just to play scold to the Obamas or anybody else that does not agree with your view.

In the Prebysterian/Reformed tradition (and maybe other Christian faiths), the fifth commandment [honor your father and mother] has a broader application to 'all those in authority over you'.

Question 124: Who are meant by father and mother in the fifth commandment?

Answer: By father and mother, in the fifth commandment, are meant, not only natural parents, but all superiors in age and gifts; and especially such as, by God's ordinance, are over us in place of authority, whether in family, church, or commonwealth.

Question 125: Why are superiors styled father and mother?

Answer: Superiors are styled father and mother, both to teach them in all duties toward their inferiors, like natural parents, to express love and tenderness to them, according to their several relations; and to work inferiors to a greater willingness and cheerfulness in performing their duties to their superiors, as to their parents.

So its because Obama is a Christian. (Wright's church, the UCC, has a bit of historic link with Reformed Christianity, though very 'liberal' nowadays)

My theory, right now, is that we are just now discovering how alien Obama really is.

I figured this out five years ago. More than a year before the election it was obvious that Obama's world view was Marxist. That doesn't mean he's a Marxist--I don't think he believes in anything but himself--but that his perceptions are filtered through by a third world Marxist lens.

X said...RV if MO's diet is so healthy, why is she overweight by 10-20 pounds?

And why do you think she is overweight? Because she is big? Why go there?

There are enough reasons to criticize the Obamas without getting into their body types. My own take is that Michelle is a large woman from a family of large people, and that her weight is perfectly appropriate to her body type. You aren't persuading anyone with snark, whether you are correct or not.

I was admiring recently the complete renovation of my grandparents farmhouse by a cousin. The rest of the property has been developed. Being a gardener I scoped out a great place to put in a garden and then realized it was where the last out-house was located and used until about 1966. Wonder how many suburban gardens are atop such?

I found the doggy eating jokes to be funny, but when using the example of being told to eat dog as a child it doesnt have anything remotely to do with guidelines for healthy eating here in this country that Michelle Obama advocates for.

When Gary Taubes or other low carb gurus recommend a low carb diet, which I agree with and advocate to have the food pyramid changed, is it "feeding children"?

I actually disagree with her recommendations, too focused on grains, but there is a limit as to how far one can legitimately find fault without looking like hate mongers. Even the attacks on her body size, she isn't overweight.

The left eventually looked pretty bad too after relentless attacks on Bush. Sometimes it's just too much.

Never in the course of human events has a man's simple pursuit of waffles been so beset with travails and misdirections.....This is an example of Obama having it both ways. He claims that his exotic background has given him a visceral understanding of how the third world apprehends life, but if you assert that this same exotic background makes him uncomprehending of the concerns of ordinary Americans, then you're engaging in racism. Dogs, waffles, broccoli: I say it's spinach and the hell with it.

David, being big boned is a result of being overweight not a cause. I wasn't trying to be snarky. I was pointing out a laywoman with no training and suboptimal personal experience is telling people how to eat. based on what? a book she read?

@Hayden: "Alien" is the accurate word/observation. Could also be avenging alien. He and huge swath of academe believe USA is imperialist by nature and evil for considering itself a nation and on both counts deserves punishment by being lived large off of, prana-sucking the nation's life out of her, getting big off her ever-diminishing vitality. Note underlying assumption that existence is a zero-sum game, not a synergistic dance.

X said...David, being big boned is a result of being overweight not a cause. I wasn't trying to be snarky. I was pointing out a laywoman with no training and suboptimal personal experience is telling people how to eat. based on what? a book she read?

Of course that is not what you said. I am not particularly impressed with Mrs. Obama's pronouncements on diet either, but it does not have to be an occasion to insult her.

I think Ann is on to something. When you’re at that age and you eat something like a dog or a snake or even vegetables, don't you spit out in your napkin.When I was about six years old, my Mom and her boyfriend tried to get me to eat zucchini and octopus for dinner, I chewed for few seconds, but it stayed in my mouth until I could perform the fake kid wipe mouth/spit into napkin (even if they threaten me with the old you can't leave the table until the plate is clean). This trick was performed with fish, vegetables, and other distasteful things that may be good for you. My napkin would be filled with chewed stuff and go right into the garbage. And I believe millions of American children have performed this ritual. Heck, even my daughters do it today.I think President Obama needed Jean Shepard to punch up that dog eating paragraph in his book.

the entire reason this is being discussed is because it's a craaaazy thing that happened in indonesia.

and then people like althouse conduct inane analyses that don't hold up. Obama was a child, he was being given food, and was expected to eat it. in fact her conclusion doesn't even mesh with her title. "Eat what you're told" doesn't sync with "it's instruction, not compulsion."

Basically, it's a desperate attempt to highlight the strangeness and natural anti-Americanness of Obama. Althouse thinks she's being smart, but she's just hoping to keep talking about it.

Like I said, replace the foodstuffs with American vegetables and meats and the setting with an American town, and everyone would be totally fine with the whole thing. Althouse wouldn't have legs to stand on, because EVERYONE teaches/tells/compels/requires/urges/forces/begs their children to eat certain food.

the entire reason this is being discussed is because it's a craaaazy thing that happened in indonesia.

Wrong, because in order for the following to hold up,

Like I said, replace the foodstuffs with American vegetables and meats and the setting with an American town, and everyone would be totally fine with the whole thing.

...the "foodstuff" in question would have to be considered a pet, not food in any way, by the audience you're showing it to. The fact the difference in his childhood locales from most Americans is incidental in this case. Or, to paraphrase,

This whole dog eat dog political dog of a story (see what I did there?) is more about the way politics runs with a side issues in order to discredit the other side. We're easily distracted and we love a good old dirty political dog fight. Serious responses to such silliness are rightly construed as dog in the manger.

Like I said, replace the foodstuffs with American vegetables and meats and the setting with an American town, and everyone would be totally fine with the whole thing.

...the "foodstuff" in question would have to be considered a pet, not food in any way, by the audience you're showing it to. The fact the difference in his childhood locales from most Americans is incidental in this case. Or, to paraphrase,

It's the dog, stupid.

I think that the reason that this has legs is that it shows that Obama is not one of us. He has the sensibilities of the 3rd World, and not the U.S. He tends to side with them, instead of us. And, seems more than willing to destroy our economy, our military (esp. our nuclear arsenal), and our foreign relations, just to bring us down to the level of the 3rd World that he emphasizes and aligns himself with.

And, this is one of those basic things - for Americans, dogs are some of our favorite, most cherished, pets, and not a delicacy to eat. Eating them is almost unthinkable for almost all native born Americans. Yet - Obama was so ignorant about American sensibilities, that he would include eating dogs in his autobiography.

I'm really trying to understand the point of this post. Because a young boy was exposed to a foreign culture (including unusual food) and didn't balk at trying it, he grew up to be ... what? Someone who has no will? And then he married a woman who would tell him and all the children in America what to eat ... but I'm not sure why. Does this childhood lack of will extend to anyone who spends time in a foreign country and doesn't refuse to try the local cuisine, or is it possible that some people eat things I wouldn't dream of (escargot and goat meat, for instance) not because they are mindless automatons but because they're open-minded or even curious? Is it possible that some children are open-minded and curious? Or even obedient to their parents, as we say they should be?

At any rate, I don't see how a child tasting non-western foods relates to nefariousness on the part of Mrs. Obama, who has taken up an innocuous and health-minded cause (eating healthier) that's very much in line with the various causes of every First Lady in recent memory. We've had Victory Gardens, highway beautification projects, physical fitness causes, the reading books ... and none of that has deterred our determination to buy our vegetables, litter like mad, become couch potatoes or watch the movie version. Why is everyone so up in arms about Mrs. Obama pointing out the very obvious problem with American children and junk food?

PS: I dated a man who was served a hamburger at a restaurant when he was in the Navy that tasted strange. He asked what kind of meat it was. The waitress replied, "Either dog or monkey." He didn't finish it, but he did taste it, and now I wonder if that's why, years later when I would ask him what he wanted for dinner, he'd say, "I don't care ... anything is fine." Do you think maybe the monkey burger experience destroyed his will? Or was he really the amiable and easy-going man he pretended to be??

Kwach, here's the point: Some of us grow up and think for ourselves. Eat this (vegetable, ideology, opinion, doctrine, government mandate...), it's good for you.But is it? How do you know? Because the entity telling you is the (parent, president, first lady, expert, government official...)?As a (presumably) grown man, Barack Obama wrote a memoir in order to promote himself. He chose to highlight his dog-eating experience. He calculated that the incident would help portray him as worldly, adventurous, open-minded, and multicultural. But how could he have predicted nearly 20 years ago, when he wrote his story of race and inheritance, that Americans would find it would only paint him as submissive, self-satisfied, and out of touch with mainstream American culture?

What an awesome "scoop" - render Obama the scary Other (as usual) & deflect from Romney's abuse of the family pet in one fell swoop? Git along little doggie, indeed. There sure is something sinister about a kid eating what's on his plate, alright - after all, little boys are always such delicate eaters.

The angle being explored here is, however, a lame mutt on a greyhound track. Trying to make Michelle Obama's initiatives for fitness & good nutrition into some sort of friendly fascism? That dog won't hunt. The epidemic of childhood obesity in America is both a shame & a menace: its cost in both human & economic terms will be horrendous for many years to come.

Rather telling that most American libtards are far more choked at BOTH Romney & Obama for being so bloody chummy with the same old wolfpack of Wall Street commisars whose ongoing exercise in mandatory corporate communism keeps dragging America ever closer to becoming the newest Third World failed state ... while wingnuts are VERY CONCERNED with Obama "brainwashing our kids" by telling them to stay in school, or his wife telling them exercise can be just as much fun as video games & fresh fruit is just as sweet as sodapop.

As First Lady, Laura Bush campaigned for literacy - also an admirable cause ... & an action that by Althouse's reasoning plainly oppressed & stigmatized legions of proud upstanding American illiterates!